Can some explain to this noob why they're worth taking?

Comparing them to normal boyz they're more fragile, slower and only marginally better at shooting.

I was toying with having a normal warband, 8 big guns and 8 wartruks to provide a more mobile fire base, any one tried it?

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My shifting projects

Harder to suppress the mek guns in it, can deploy on overwatch, and if you fail to sustain you can still shoot at ok firepower.

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With a Nob to back them up, they make a great garrison force... add Oddboyz and you've got firepower that will make then enemy sit up and take notice!

They've also got better range and firefight that basic Boyz.  I've never tried them mounted, but I've often used tow "Big" formations of them as forward overwatch posts.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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Sometimes I think I'm the only person ever to think Big Gunz are just cool all by themselves.  They shoot well more than 2x as good as boyz and with longer range that helps them do things like prep the enemy for an assault.  They have FF5+ which is decent in general and good for Orks.

If you can still access Fanatic Online, there's an article I wrote on Bad Moonz armies that includes some discussion of tactics for Big Gunz.  In a nutshell...

There are 2 kinds of "Gunz Mobz":

1) The actual Gunz Mobz formation.  These need to be Big or Uge and really should have Nobz maxed out.  Gunz don't get Mob Up bonuses, so they really need to shed extra BMs when they rally and the Nobz help if the Gunz get caught in CC.

2) A basic Warband with Big Gunz added.  More expensive and not really gaining any firepower, it is much more durable than even a Uge Gunzmob.

2a) Not in that article, but Speed Freeks can make a shooty mob out of their basic warband.  Trukks can carry Big Gunz so you can add Battlewagonz for cheap transport and shuffle boyz around to fill in slots that can't carry Gunz.  This makes for a fast formation that's fairly shooty out to 45cm and very shooty at under 30cm.

I use them aggressively, doubling forward to shoot and (hopefully) eventually getting to FF support range, maybe even assaulting if you're really lucky.  Garrison somewhere that forces the enemy to make tough tactical choices.  Look for lines of approach where the Gunz can leapfrog from terrain to terrain.

If you can pull off an end-of-turn Double/beginning of turn Sustain combo, they work well.  It's hard, but if you move aggressively and position so you have several target choices it can be done.

They can also be used to good effect with a Jaldon-style "line of orks" area denial.  They stay behind the boyz and shoot with relative impunity or fill in holes in the line.

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Neal